Sons of Humanity
by T.j.98
Summary: Corporal Elliot is tells his son about how the humans returned to Pandora after Quartich's Last Stand. Under the Command of General Of The Armies Marcus Germanicus, the humans returned to Pandora with three goals; settle the planet, save humanity, and bring a traitor to justice.
1. Chapter 1

It is a sleepy day today.

A light tropical drizzle buffets against the windows of my home, and I find a strange sense of calm in watching the water droplets roll down the window and wash out yard. I am not a young man anymore, but I have lived a good life with love and fatherhood. My only regrets are that my friends can not be here to enjoy this peace with me. However, even this sorrow is greatly lessened by the belief that they are in a better place.

In any case, it is an especially happy day as my eldest son and his young children drove all the way from the city to visit me.

After I greet my family, I welcome them into my home. I talk with my son and his wife in the living room while we watch my grandchildren play "Greens and Blues" (a lighthearted recreation of the many clashes the Combined Armies had against the Na'vi). First they have an minor argument over who has to be the savage first, an argument which they resolve by drawing straws. Then they chase each other around, the two 'marines' shooting at the 'savage' with toy guns while the 'savage' shoots back with a toy bow.

"I'm Miles Quartich! I'm Miles Quartich!"

"Die, Jake Sully, Die!"

They replay this over and over and over. The 'marines' would play Quartich, or Selfridge, or Germanicus or Wainfleet. Meanwhile the 'Navi' would play Jake or Spellman or Trudy.

"Bam! You're dead." The child playing Quartich would exclaim after pressing the muzzle of the toy gun against the heart of the child playing Sully and pulling the trigger repeatedly.

"Why do you always win?"

"Because that's how it should have happened in real life."

"Well, this time can I be a marine?"

"Sure thing. You can be Grandpa and I'll be a blue savage this time. I'm Norm Spellman; catch me if you can!"

"After him!" The third child, who was still playing Germanicus, shouted his command.

"Terra Vult!"

While nine out of ten times the 'marines' won decisively, occasionally it would play out with the 'navi' winning while one of the marines dies a tragic yet heroic death and the other escapes to Earth vowing revenge.

"Bam, got you!"

The child playing Quartich used all his theatric ability in the death scene, slowly lowering himself onto the ground and sprawling his arms out. The child playing Wainfleet closed the eyes of his dying Commander, and then vowed revenge. Then he played the Consul of Earth (the fact that this position was not yet formed did not get in the way of their fun), giving an abridged version of his historical speech calling for the reconquest of Pandora (abridged in that he only remember the famos parts and adlibbed the rest). The other two played two marines watching the speech while responding with patriotic shouts and promises of how they're going to 'kill the savages'. This was followed by more of the wild chasing I saw earlier.

Next my wife and I prepare dinner for our children and grandchildren, and after eating our fill my daughter-in-law goes with my wife to read bedtime stories to my grandchildren.

Meanwhile, I go outside to sit on my porch and cool off (kept dry by the overhang which is over the porch). My son follows.

"The rain's really coming down."

"It always rained like this. I'm just thankful to be dry."

During the wars of old, the rain was a constant follower who plagued me constantly. Now it is very much like an old friend.

"Do you remember how you used to tell me stories about your old experiences?"

"Its not your bedtime."

"No, but I still like to hear them."

"I'm sure you probably learned about the cruel navi in textbooks and classrooms."

"But none of them tell it as good as you do."

I can not help but smile my toothy smile. My son is a grown man with children of his own, bit there are times when I still see the small child I raised from birth.

"Okey, but only because you behaved yourself."

At this, my son can not help but chuckle.

"When I returned to Pandora, it was raining just like it is now..."


	2. Chapter 2

During the last stand of the heroic Miles Quartich, brave men and woman were slaughtered without mercy. I was one of the few lucky enough to have been left behind to guard the base. But at the time, it seemed unlucky.

After we were betrayed by Team Avatar, the blue savages marched into the base. While Jake Sully promised we would be kept prisoner until such time as we could leave, his savage warriors proved this to be a lie. The picked out any Prisoner Of War they did not like, murdering him outright or torturing him with cruel sadism. At one point, a group of warriors gathered up a group of AMP pilots and buried them alive while the rest of us were forced to watch and listen. My uncle, Parker Selfridge, would have been killed if we did not hide his identity from them. He almost did die; he was infected from a wound and the savages refused him medicine. While he was still alive, he was left a changed man by the experience. The screams of the murdered stayed every single one of us.

When the Valkarie finally landed to collect the few surviving humans, I fell to my knees and thanked God for his mercy. They locked me in cyrosleep, and I expected to return to Earth.

What I did not expect was to be sent back to Pandora. Only this time Pandora was different from when I left it.

You must understand something about cyrosleep. When you are under, nothing about your body changes by even an atom. While the world changes all around you, you stay the same. When I was first sent to Pandora from Earth, I was only a seventeen year old Marine; one of a sea of service men and women who were left jobless after the Great War. This war was between three separate alliances, and in the end the victor was the Coalition; the alliance of nations which my home, the United States, was a part of. When I sighed up to serve in the Security Operations, I was placed in cyrosleep and remained there until I was awoken six years later.

When I woke, I was still seventeen. I remained on Pandora for five years, serving serving under the Resource Development Administration. During those five years heroes like Colonial Miles Quartich and 'Ironsides' Wainfleet were still amongst the living; may God grant them peace. My uncle, Parker Selfridge, was also one of the original colonists. We mined the precious Unobtanium which was used to keep Earth stable and Humanity alive. But despite our best efforts to negotiate, we were opposed every step of the way by blue savages. These culturally stagnant monsters were not willing to share this Eden, attacking us on sight without provocation or mercy. When we retaliated and fought back, they would act surprised. However, they could not overrun us on their own. Not until they got help from traitors.

When Jake Sully came landed on Pandora, he seemed to everyone else like just another marine arrived to find a new purpose. That he was to work for Team Avatar (which before their treason had already garnished some notoriety) was not something to raise suspicion. But in his heart was the seed of misanthropy, a seed which lead him to screw over his own species when humanity needed him most. He and his traitor pals aided the savages, raising an army to raise Hell's Gate to the ground. Colonial Quartich preemptively attacked, as destroying their false idol would humble the savages and force them to accept that we were here to stay. Despite their valiant effort, Quartich and Wainfleet died a heroic death on the field of battle. Despite this we could have held Hell's Gate if it were not for those damned traitors on Team Avatar.

What they did was treason of the worst kind. I am not making an exaggeration when I say that Jake Sully is a worse version of Benedict Arnold. What makes him worse is that he knew his actions might have lead humanity to extinction, and he either did not care or (more likley) wanted that to happen.

Fortunately, the humans returned.

When I stepped out of the Valkyrie, I was as exhausted as I was when I entered it. Leaning on my shoulder for balance was my uncle Parker Selfridge. He was clearly changed by the horror of our imprisonment, and the full effect of his Trauma wold only show itself later on.

Not a single person among us was expecting to see Hell's Gate ever again; let alone still intact. Confused, we were herded to the barracks by marines who were waiting for us. By the look of their uniforms it was quite clear they were the real deal as apposed to mere SecOps troops. On the way to the barracks, I can see that these humans spent time not only rebuilding the fortress but even adding improvements and extra sections to it. The whole base was crawling with marines rushing from place to place. Whoever is in charge certainly values efficiency.

We got there just as soon as General Germanicus finished a speech he gave to newcomers. Once they went to their posts, he addressed us.

When Germanicus spoke, he had a voice which carried natural authority in and of itself. He did not need to raise it or use fancy words to get our attention.

"I should start by saying, welcome back. My name is Marcus Germanicus, I am General of the Armies as well as current commander over all military activity on Pandora. The Republic of Earth sent me and my men to secure the mining of Unobtanium as well as to guard the settlement of this planet. I am not going to waste time telling you about the dangers this planet holds, as I suspect you already know what they are. However, I will tell you that these dangers can be defended against. More than that, they can be pushed back.

Follow my commands, and they will be nothing more than a bad memory."

When I looked upon this man, a strong man with dark black hair who stood at six foot five, I knew right then and there that Jake Sully's days were numbered.


	3. Chapter 3

I spent the next month training, working to rebuild my skills which had no doubt become rusty while I spent those hellish months as a Prisoner Of War to those blue savages. Fortunately, my mental health was not irreversably crippled; just a few visits to a quack and I was right as rain.

Eventually, I got word that I was to be deployed into combat.

Truth be told, I was happy to finally be doing something; At times I felt that waiting around might have driven me insane. Still, I no idea how happy I would be to finally see the fighting end. But I guess that's hindsight for you.

However, the day before my deployment I visited my uncle. I wanted to tell him I would be fine, that he need not worry about me. More than that, I wanted to check up on him and see how he was doing.

In the spare time I had in the day, I rode the tram from the barracks to the OP Center where my uncle lived. General Germanicus certainly was an ambitious man, as he had transformed Hell's Gate from dilapidated ruins into the biggest and most fortified citadel history had ever seen. It would hold that distinction even to this day, when the base had grown even more fortified and the great city of Quartich's Landing would grow up around it and become the Capitol of human activities on Pandora.

My Uncle had not been the same since his imprisonment at the hands of the Navi. His hair had turned grey, but apart from that he did not appear too outwardly traumatized. It took a keen eye to see the more subtle signs: the vacant and listless look in his eyes, the way his hands would occasionally shake ever so slightly when he clenched his fists. It was clear he was not the same man who landed on Pandora all those years ago.

"Parker?"

My uncle looked up from his desk work, apparently having zoned out for a few seconds.

"Oh, Jacob, its good to see you. I was just ... just ..."

My uncle lost his train of thought. I was on the verge of tears at that moment, as my uncle was never scatterbrained or without focus before his imprisonment. Parker Selfridge had a good mind for numbers and business, graduating from his collage a year earlier than most would. He was one of the few people who could navigate the labyrinth that was the great web of megacorporations. Selfridge was an obvious choice for the idea to colonize Pandora, and he has been with the brave Colonial Quartich since the beginning. More than that, he was family. For all these reasons and more, it hurt me to see my uncle traumatized.

While in the years to come he would receive treatment and his post traumatic stress would become fainter with the years, I did not know that then. I believed that my uncle whom I had loved since I was a child had been broken by those savages.

It took all my nerve to force out what I wanted to say. "I'm deploying tomorrow."

My uncle's eyes widened in terror, and by the looks of it his mind returned to his imprisonment when he was starved and terrorized by the cruel and barbaric Navi.

I am quick to add in, "-I'll be well armed and I won't be alone."

This doesn't assuage my uncle, as he whispers, "Quartich was well armed."

"Quartich didn't have the resources that we have now. Earth is completely invested in Pandora now, so we have more weapons and men than we did in the past."

It is true, and paradoxically at the same time false. My statement was true in the sense that Earth had struggled temporarily turned into a total-war economy to get a great armada up and ready to retake Pandora. It was also true in the sense that the Unobtanium in Pandora was Earth's last chance of survival. But my statement was false in one sense; I in those days had not even begun to see the full extent of Humanity's influence on Pandora. Not even close.

"I'll be fine," I told my uncle Selfridge, "Trust me."

"... Ok. But promise me you will be careful."

"I will."

"I want to hear you promise."

"Ok, I promise I will be careful."

I talked with my uncle a bit more, mostly smalltalk about work and what not. Once my uncle no longer seemed terrified, I said goodby and returned to my barracks to prepare for tomorrow.

Tomorrow would be my real entry into the war against the savages.


	4. Chapter 4

My first battle since I returned to Pandora was in the village of the Li'ona Clan. This was actually the second battle: the first assault was launched by the now deceased Conrad Olson. This clan was hostile towards the humans since the beginning, destroying a hydroelectric dam and killing a multitude of workers present on the dam. However, we were here to finish what Olson started.

Our assault force twelve hundred men strong, as that was all that was needed to take the village. It was located on a hill and across a riverbank, and the Navi had placed palisade and wooden stakes to deter our advance.

I was not trained to use an AMP suit, so I was on my feet. In my hands was an assault rifle, and around my belt was a sharp combat knife as well as a handgun.

Technology had advanced quite a bit in the six years that I was under; AMP suits were stronger and faster, our guns were better, our knives and bayonets sharper, and our masks were less cumbersome. I showed you once the mask I had to wear during the time when Colonial Quartich was in charge. It was very cumbersome and was prone to slipping off or cracking. While our new masks were much easier to use, the technology needed to allow humans to breath the toxic stew of Pandora's atmosphere was not slowing down. Not in the slightest.

With my arms and armor, I marched into the fray alongside my brothers in arms.

We were huddled close to the ground, crawling from one cover to another. Trees, boulders, bushes, all these provided cover for us. Providing firing support behind us were the AMP suits simply walked towards the savages while firing upon them. In the air above the battle, Samsons did battle with the flying beasts that the Navi rode upon. When crawling through we would sometimes pop over the cover long enough to fire a blast of our guns at the enemy.

While we did this, our blue enemies tried desperately to avoid their fate. We were under a constant barrage of poisoned arrows, and there was always the danger of falling into a concealed spike pit.

I almost fell into one of those wretched pits. I was taking cover behind the trunk of a fallen tree, ready to bolt to a nearby rock. A comrade of mine volunteered to go first, rushing forth while I and the other five soldiers behind the cover fired at the blue enemies. I actually hit one of them, felling a navi warrior who mistakenly thought this would be a good time to charge at us.

The Marine who ran to the next cover was almost there when a hole opened up and he fell into it. When it was my time to run to the boulder, I went past the spike pit and was able to glimpse what fate befell my fellow Marine. I will not describe how horrible it was to look upon the impaled man, as that is something nobody should know. To this day I remember that it could easily have been me.

The Navi were exceedingly brutal. They had no concept of anything resembling the Laws and Customs of War, and this is reflected in their barbaric practices. Grizzly traps, torture and murder of Prisoners Of War, and use of Child Soldiers.

I made it to temporary safety, dodging a flying arrow which was aimed at my head. Placing my gun over the cover, I fired at the enemy. A scream told me that I hit my mark, and so I ran again to take position behind a tree. Behind me came another Marine, dragging his injured comrade. Once they were safe from arrows, the man began treating his friend's wound.

By now we were close to the village, and navi warriors began charging at us head on. I had to defend the medic and his patient against three savages who charged at us. I fired at them, killing one and injuring the other. The third raised his spear to skewer me but before he can I drive my bayonet through his belly. He plunges his spear into the dirt before falling onto his back. When the third one sees this, he jumps at me with the intent of breaking my neck. Fortunately I raise my bayonet instinctively and the navi warrior's throat is stabbed open. He fell on top of me, but I am able to push him off long enough to fire at the navi warriors before they can charge again.

Once we were in the village grounds, the blues became desperate. Someone with a megaphone told them to surrender, promising them they will be allowed to live if they lay down their arms and leave now. We got our answer.

They all charge at us at once, felling some of the Marines there. However, it is soon all over. Our machine guns finish them off, felling the blues and ending the battle. On the sky, the few banshee riders still alive flee like rabbits chased by wolves. We won the day.

In the huts we find navi, those two young and too old to fight. These are herded into the middle of the village, surrounded by angry marines. The commander of our force gave the order.

"Translator, tell these savages to leave right now. We already won, so we don't need to kill any of these ones."

After the villagers left, our commander permitted us to rest until the ships came to pick us up and take us back to base. Some collected bows and arrows and spearheads and daggers and other souvenirs. However, most of us just sat on the ground and rested.

Eventually the ships came.

The ships brought soldiers to secure this area, to collect the bodies of dead Marines to return them to the base so they can be prepared for burial. The bodies of dead navi warriors were stripped of all remaining weapons, which would later be burned in a pile to prevent enemies from using them.

Within less than a year the hydroelectric dam in that area would be rebuilt and would go on to provide valuable and renewable electricity.

That's one more victory, and one more step to taming this planet.

* * *

><p><em>Author's Note: I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your encouraging words.<em>


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